Challenger expedition

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An illustration of the ship.

The Challenger expedition of 1872–76 was a scientific exercise that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography. The expedition was named after the mother vessel, HMS Challenger.

Prompted by the Scot, Charles Wyville Thomson—of the University of Edinburgh and Merchiston Castle School—the Royal Society of London obtained the use of Challenger from the Royal Navy and in 1872 modified the ship for scientific work, equipping her with separate laboratories for natural history and chemistry. The ship, commanded by Captain George Nares, sailed from Portsmouth, England, on 21 December 1872.[1] Under the scientific supervision of Thomson himself, she travelled nearly 70,000 nautical miles (130,000 km) surveying and exploring. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76 which, among many other discoveries, catalogued over 4,000 previously unknown species. John Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries". Challenger sailed close to Antarctica, but not within sight of it.[2]

Contents

[edit] Preparations

As recently as the late 19th century, human knowledge of the oceans was confined to topmost few fathoms of the water and a small amount of the bottom, mainly in shallow areas. Sailors and scientists knew almost nothing of the ocean depths. The Royal Navy's efforts to chart all of the world's coastlines in the mid-19th century reinforced the vague idea that most of the ocean was very deep, although little more was known. As exploration ignited both popular and scientific interest in the polar regions and Africa, so too did the mysteries of the unexplored oceans.

To enable her to probe the depths, the Challenger's guns were removed and her spars reduced to make more space available. Laboratories, extra cabins and a special dredging platform were installed. She was loaded with specimen jars, alcohol for preservation of samples, microscopes and chemical apparatus, trawls and dredges, thermometers and water sampling bottles, sounding leads and devices to collect sediment from the sea bed and great lengths of rope with which to suspend the equipment into the ocean depths. Because of the novelty of the expedition, some of the equipment was invented or specially modified for the occasion. In all she was supplied with 181 miles (291km) of Italian hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging.

[edit] Return and analysis

Challenger returned to Spithead, Hampshire, on 24 May 1876, having spent 713 days at sea out of the intervening 1,606.[1] On her 68,890-nautical-mile (127,580 km) journey,[1] she conducted 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls, 263 serial water temperature observations, and discovered about 4,700 new species of marine life. Copies of the written records of the Challenger Expedition are now stored in several marine institutions around the UK including the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and the Dove Marine Laboratory in Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear. The complete set of reports of the Challenger Expedition, written between 1877 and 1895, are available online at http://19thcenturyscience.org.

[edit] Legacy

As the first true oceanographic cruise, the Challenger expedition laid the groundwork for an entire academic and research discipline.

The name of the Challenger was applied to such varied phenomena as the Challenger Deep, the Challenger Society for Marine Science, and the Space Shuttle Challenger.[3]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Rice, A.L. (1999). "The Challenger Expedition". Understanding the Oceans: Marine Science in the Wake of HMS Challenger. Routledge. pp. 27–48. ISBN 978-1857287059. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=F5agn3NSzEoC&pg=PA27. 
  2. ^ Scott, Keith (1993). The Australian Geographic book of Antarctica. Terrey Hills, New South Wales: Australian Geographic. pp. 115. ISBN 1862760101. 
  3. ^ "Challenger (STA-099, OV-99): Background". Joyhn F. Kennedy Space Center. http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/Challenger.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 

[edit] External links

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